There’s something quietly impressive about spending millions on a rebrand… only to end up where you started. HBO Max became Max. Then Max became HBO Max again. That’s five logos, four naming conventions, and one expensive game of branding Jenga. All while the average user just wanted to know where to find Succession.
The parent brand was the plotHere’s where it really went sideways: “Max” was meant to be a new standalone product. Something bigger. Bolder. Beyond HBO. But in distancing it from the parent brand, they lost the plot entirely. HBO meant prestige. Cultural cachet. That Sunday-night, must-watch, “don’t spoil it for me” kind of relevance. Max? Could be a mattress. Or a credit card. Or your ex’s new crypto startup. When you bury the brand people already trust, you don’t make something feel new — you make it feel disposable. Sub-brands are harder than they lookMost companies overestimate the need for sub-brands. Building one brand is hard enough. Splitting your equity between two is a fast track to muddy messaging and forgettable design. (Unless you’ve got Apple’s budget and Taylor Swift’s brand loyalty… probably don’t.) If you want to launch a new product under a strong parent brand, great. But build on the trust, don’t sidestep it. Internal logic ≠ external resonanceYou can see how it happened. Internally, “Max” made sense. It was meant to reflect the combined power of HBO, Discovery, and everything in between: one unified platform. Cleaner. Broader. “Bigger than TV.” But none of that translated. Because users don’t read brand decks. They don’t sit in naming meetings. They don’t care that you merged three content libraries. They care about what they already know. If the internal story isn’t made explicit (fast, clearly, and repeatedly), then your “bold new direction” just feels like a dropped thread. If you’re thinking about renaming, rebranding, or relaunching…Start here: → Does your new name say more, not less? Otherwise, you’re just changing signs on the door, while your customers walk right past, wondering where HBO went. Oh, and my agency can help you rebrand the right way: 🏭 Conversion Factory What’s the worst rebrand you’ve seen? (Bonus points if it was yours.) —Corey
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📂 When your rebrand deletes the plot
Turns out HBO Max was already a good name. Who knew? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏...
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